Strömberg Park is a culturally and historically valuable industrial environment located in Vaasa, Finland, which began to take shape in 1940 from the urban plan of Alvar Aalto. In 2019, the global engineering company ABB, owner of most of the area, needs to bring together its activities under one roof.
A production warehouse in the Strömberg Park measuring 300 meters and designed in the 1970s by architect Eskil Haldin is chosen by ABB as the company headquarters with all offices. An impressive refurbishment that transforms the old warehouse into a multi-space office for 700 people, bringing together a unique history, high-level expertise, and modern technology.
This corporate headquarters is one of the interior design projects by Parviainen Architects. It is an open and creative dialogue between the old and the new. The large scale of the factory has been utilized in both vertical and horizontal directions by constructing a new internal mezzanine floor and placing a 250-meter-long internal road at its upper level. In addition to serving as a luminous element that visually and functionally outlines the building's spacious volumes, the internal road that runs through the structure is also a meeting place for visitors and staff. Below the new raised floor is the garage.
The new gable window and the balcony at the end of the internal street correspond to the formal language and scale of the old windows that architecturally dominate the longitudinal facade of the building. In line with the new spatial concept, the large windows are also visually prominent from the inside and are an essential part of the work environment.
In the new ABB building there are no corridors: pedestrian movement naturally flows through a varied and visually rich spatial sequence. The new spaces defined by large, luminous glass surfaces express the spirit of an era of open information technology and a new culture of interactive operations.
